SW London girls independent/grammars thread 2020

[autumnnightsaredrawingin]

Last year, there were two amazing threads which were super helpful about exactly this, so I wanted to start a thread for girls due to start September 2020. If anyone from last year wants to contribute please do!

We have narrowed our choices down to 5, sadly not in the right postcode for Tiffin, and decided not to do the Sutton grammars.

So, she will be doing PHS, WHS, LEH, SHS and Woldingham. Also registered for Emanuel but we may pull that one.

Checking in after WHS Stage 2 assessment. Hope it went ok for everyone .

DD enjoyed it but seemed pretty tired when I collected her. The activities sounded quite varied (from what little DD has told me). She did find it a bit strange having people with clipboards watching them all the time!

Another one done, thank goodness.

Hope the WHS assessment went well. @ColaPip glad your daughter enjoyed it.

I am willing Friday to come quickly when I think we hear by post about LEH interviews...

Also trying to motivate DD to do a bit of work for Emanuel on Friday- she is now slightly over it all and it’s her last choice of school so she’s not really taking it seriously.

Oh and good luck to all waiting on SPGS too!

My dd quite enjoyed Wimbledon but was annoyed that it included English and maths when they had billed it as creative and alternative. We are finished though, bar a few interviews (hopefully), which is a good feeling. Good luck to all x

@PhilippaFawcett my DD too! She came out quite cross, she had been looking forward to making or designing something. The clipboard thing was also strange for her, although she said everyone was very friendly. I hope she gave a good account of herself despite finding it less "fun" than she hoped.

Anyway, we are now finished the written parts - hooray! Now for the nail biting wait...

Hmmm interesting WHS has now included English and Maths again. Not what they did last year. Did they have to do a paper?

@Expo they gave them what they called 'puzzle booklets' but they were apparently papers

Yes, short papers (15-25 minutes) for each of maths and English, interspersed with group activities. DD had fun and made a friend in her group, even exchanged phone numbers!

That is interesting. I complained about the WHS process last year to the head and got royally and patronisingly told everything was amazing. Same head who is telling parents in her new year message to stop messaging on WA groups to help their kids and only get their kids to come to them for help after they have tried three alternative solutions themselves. I am very happy when my teenage kids let me know what is going on. I am terrified of them holding things back.

WHS definitely had English last year in that they had a creative writing task which was timed. One of the tasks was also maths based, I'm not sure if there was a booklet I can check with DD after school.

Has anyone received the interview email for SPGS?

nop - should be tomorrow

@Expo, the WHS head is completely right. Parents WhatsApp groups have a place but in my experience are used to exert control over every aspect of their child’s schooling, when by secondary school they should be self managing much more. As well as being a forum for moaning endlessly about the minutiae of school life and whipping up discontent. Parents should use their judgement about when to step in - lost their PE top - no, being bullied yes. I don’t see this as encouraging children to withhold concerns, just for us to think twice about stepping in to problem solve each time. I see parents micro managing everything for their children and it does them no favours in the long run.

From last year I also seem to remember the information sent about the Creative Assessment day at WHS saying explicitly that they would test literacy and numeracy amongst other things, was it the same this year? I would assume most children were highly prepped for the English and maths papers for other schools in any case?

Correct they had creative writing but not a maths and English paper.

Anyone knows what time should we expect the spgs results to be sent?

Do you know for sure that the emails are being sent out today xplus?

Are LU, Alleyns and City letters due today?

Yes, the emails are due out today for SPGS and CLSG, it said somewhere it was going to be on January 15.

It was mentioned in the SPGS letter inviting the girls for Round 2.

I have heard some emails have been sent already for SPGS...

It depends where you are in the alphabet xplus. Good luck!!!

it feels like the alphabet has 10,000 characters...

Just got an email from spgs inviting dd for interview. I wasn't expecting it so am v proud of her. Her surname is first third of the alphabet in case they're doing it alphabetically and anyone is still waiting. Good luck everyone!

Congrats givemesomewineplease, and thanks for the info. We’re last third so hopefully after lunch.